COOKIE MONSTER UM YUM YUM.

Yesterday was the 14th birthday of Rebecca (the girl I live with) so I decided to make a cake...
When I get an idea in my head that I really like I find it really hard to change, so even though Sesame Street is pretty well unknown here, when I saw a picture of this cookie monster cake... I had to make it! It was a bit of a hunt to find blue colouring, but all worked out in the end and Rebecca even knew the character!! Amazing!

Caccia

Updates...
As usual I don't have a great excuse for not posting for the last... month... but I will try and excuse myself as best I can....
Partially I haven't been doing much out of the ordinary lately, and therefore I don't have many photos- a post without photos is like no post at all!
Secondly, the weekend I did actually do something, the card for my camera decided to die and I lost all the photos...
And then I'm just going to throw in that I haven't had a whole lot of motivation to post... sorry.
So here is an update of the last month (breif and without photos, because I lost them).
After 3 months, my stage at Hotel Brunelleschi has come to an end. They have offered me a contract as pastry chef for next year starting April if I am so inclined, however at this stage it looks like visas may dictate this one rather than what I actually would like to do as it is not an easy process to hold a working visa.
The weather is getting alot colder. i was a little disappointed that there wasn't so much of an inbetween time, we seemed to go from hot hot days then a week of hot days with cold nights and then straight to cold. Now it's raining. Better get used to that though I spose because it's going to get alot colder!
With the changing of the seasons comes the changing of style of living here, all the outdoor dining is now moved inside, outdoorsy bars are closing and nightclubs are opening, the river is rising and hunting season is open.
This weekend with Lorenzo his Dad and his dog we went hunting. We were up at 6.30am to driving an hour out of Florence into the hills. We then walked up hill for about half an hour through the woods in order to reach their hunting... "hut" (which is more like the tree house every kids dreams about) where we spent the next few hours... without seeing a single bird (a part from the ones they set up).

 
In my opinion, this Caccia (hunting in Italian) is an excuse for boys to be boys. Hiking through beautiful woods, sitting in your tree house and holding a gun, then when you get hungry, lighting a fire, cooking and eating with your hands (then wiping your hands on your pants without complaint from anyone... because you're hunting). If you ask me... there are no birds.

Birthdays and Beer festivals

 My birthday this year conveniently coincided with munich’s famous Oktoberfest, so when I received an invitation to stay with and attend the festival with a mixture of Germans, Italians and Australians I figured it was the perfect way to spend my 23rd birthday.

I took the night train on Friday night, arriving in Munich at 6.30am Saturday morning, just in time to see the dirndl and lederhosen clad youngsters returning home from the previous nights festivities.

After spending the day equipping myself with a Dirdle, we went to a historical section of the festival that was started last year to commemorate the 200th year of Oktoberfest. Last year the 6 Munich breweries came together to produce the beer that was brewed and drunk 200 years ago, it’s stronger, sweeter and was so popular last year that they decided to repeat the “historical Oktoberfest” again this year. So I happily washed down my giant pork knuckle with a stein of old fashion beer.

Sunday morning we had a traditional Baverian breakfast of weisswurst and beer followed by a lazy day before the big nights events.

Together with another 2 Australians, 2 Austrians, 1 Brit, 3 Italians, 4 Germans and 5 half German half Italians (one who lives in the UK), we had 2 tables booked in the Gallery level of the Augustine tent. Our tickets bought us the table from 5pm til 10pm, 2 beers (1L pints), half a roast chook each and a looot of fun.

I have to admit that although I wanted to go to Oktoberfest- more to say I had been and to see what all the hype was about... I really just expected that it would be a lot of sitting at a table drinking (or more likely on my part- struggling to drink) litres of beer whilst surrounded by drunk tourists. Yet I was really suprised... Yes, there were many many drunks, but I really didn't notice! Nor did I notice the 2 and a half litres of good German beer I drank that night (which may have something to do with the not noticing the drunks...) But Oktoberfest is full of history and tradition (which I learnt from one of the locals at my table) and apart from being primarily about the beer, it is still a festival with rides, sideshow games, candied almonds, music and costumes.

And whilst sitting at your table, drinking your beer and eating half a chook, the band on the ground floor is playing songs that everyone knows the words and actions to, so you find yourself straddling the bench seat rocking back and forth with the rest of people at your table, singing a mixture of eeeeeeee boo dii dddddaaaaaah lo li lah to the tune to make it look like you too know the song.

 

  The waiters are amazing, carring up to 14 beers at a time, through the hall and up the stairs to the tables!

It really was alot of fun. My birthday was shared with one of the other Australians in the group, and the group even organised a birthday treat for us, getting personalised lebkuchenherzen for us both. Thanks guys!

On monday night after spending the day in the beautiful English Gardens in Munich, I took another night train back to Florence arriving at 6.30am, ready to start work at 9am. Back to reality :)